A short distance into the future – the American economy an d its environment is busy collapsing and, somewhere further down the line, the “jackpot” has struck and the world has recovered, somewhat. Gibson does lots of things rather well: inventing language that feels real, perversely not letting you know what’s going on, making you interested in characters that are absolute shits (not evil, just people like Milgrim, now Netherington). He constructs elaborate jokes that build over chapters that are laugh out loud without being able to explain them, and he has fundamental respect for his characters, no matter how unsavoury.